People who write for online media outlets, and those who are avid readers of these sites, know that commenting can go from positive and friendly to shockingly horrible in the blink of an eye.

Case in point- a well meaning baked goods enthusiast named “Web Guy Josh” from Melbourne, Australia posted a recipe for a deliciously psychedelic Amazing Rainbow Tie-Dye Number Surprise Cake on Fox 101.9's site (blogged about on Neatorama previously), and one helpful commenter offered a suggestion to make the recipe better.

What happened next is one of those real life moments too strange to be made up- comments quickly turned from snarky corrections to a full blown crapstorm of craziness, full of insulting name calling and political ranting, all because someone asked a simple question about one step in the recipe.

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Once upon a time, the pop versus soda site had an option for you to enter an "other" name for a carbonated drink, and if you clicked through a few pages you can find the list of all other entries. Years ago I glanced at it to see what other things might come up, and saw whole political arguments breaking out, because there was a very long space limit on how much you could put in that other input box. The site and even other page is still there, but it looks like some of the older junk may have been cleared out. Still, that amounts to arguing on a webpage where comments weren't even easily visible and several pages away from the front page or where you even enter the comment.